The present disclosure is related to the field of wireless sensing. More specifically, the present disclosure is related to evaluating an association between a wireless sensor and a monitored patient.
Monitoring vital signs is an important part of patient care as the general or particular health of the patient is determined, in part, through measurement and interpretation of key physiological indicators. Well-known parameters of patient health include blood pressure, hemoglobin saturation (SPO2), and features of the electrocardiogram (ECG). However, the utilization of physiological instrumentation to obtain these measurements at the bed side of a patient also possess well-known burdens to the clinical environment. The presence of cables, catheters, and tubing connecting the patient and sensors to the instrumentation configured to provide all monitoring or therapeutic care can diminish productivity and the quality of patient care. For example, rotating a patient to alleviate bed sores or ambulating about the room can be problematic if one is saddled with tethered devices. Procedural delays stemming from cable management also contribute to a great percentage of time dedicated to routine, mundane tasks not directly related to treatment of the patient's illness.
Wireless communication technology leveraged to patient monitoring may at least mitigate some of the problems associated with cable clutter and device management. With instrumentation becoming wireless, the management of such devices is eased. In addition, wireless instrumentation/devices greatly reduce the burden associated with cable management.
Wireless patient monitoring networks, however, bring new problems that need to be addressed for proper implementation of a monitoring regime. In many instances, whether using a wireless monitoring system or a wired system, elements of the system communicate with at least one central management device. In the hospital environment, this management device is often used to relay monitored information to an infrastructure that allows health care professionals to analyze the monitored information from an outside location (e.g. a nurse station). In other wireless systems, the management device may be integrated with a central processing unit that analyzes the incoming device information. When cables are removed from these devices, a user of the system can no longer safe guard that the devices are properly connected to the patient to be monitored by the management device by simply ensuring that the cables extend from the management device to the correct patient. That is, without cables, a health care provider or other operator lacks the visual cues associated with cables to assure that the sensing devices are properly connected to the proper patient to be monitored by the management device. Alternatively, as wireless sensing systems proliferate in a care setting, wireless sensing devices may inadvertently become communicatively connected with a management device associated with another patient. Again, without the visual cues of the cable, a healthcare provider or other operator lacks a tool for fast and accurate confirmation that the management device is receiving physiological data from a specified patient and that patient only.